We talk a lot about Pinterest marketing and all the elements that make a good strategy. As I mention in every Pinterest post, Pinterest is not simply a social media but a visual search engine. It acts and operates similarly to google as it uses keywords to find the user’s desired content. The main difference is that Pinterest is solely based on the visual content it produces in the search and does not have articles ratings. The key element in this process for the user is to click on the pin that is most attractive to them and be redirected to the desired content’s website.
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Pinterest is divided into a number of avenues and has hundreds of niches that are present in its database. This also results in different styled pins that the user chooses from.
To start, on Pinterest you will find a lot of images. The images fit practically within any category. The images alone have a lot of power, most Pinterest users go to Pinterest to get inspired or solve a problem. For example, if you are looking to renovate or do a DIY project you will most likely have a board with lots of pictures for the DIY / reno project. This kind of content is great as many users save these images, and often get many clicks to the link that is assigned to it.
Another content you will find on Pinterest is products. Those can often be a simple image or an info pin that suggest this product. Once you click on the pin to enlarge it you will often see a price tag and where this item is from. If the user is interested they will often click the link and be directed to the product. This is a great tool for an e-commerce store. The same goes for recipes, you can have a full recipe displayed on Pinterest and direct the viewer straight to it.
In order to get your product to show a price tag or have a recipe with all the ingredients in it you need to have rich pins enables. Learn more about Rich Pins here
The next set of content you will find on Pinterest is redirecting pins. The re-directing pins are pins that are designed to grab the users’ attention and make them want to learn more. This often results in the user actually clicking the pin and going to the attached link. The link does not necessarily lead towards a product but the link is often attached to a blog post/ course offer/ services and so on.
As a business, this is the pin-style you should be paying a lot of attention to. If you create a strong visual pin for your content you will be able to drive users to your website on autopilot for months.
You’re probably wondering what I mean by all of that, well it’s simple. You create an attractive pin that people in your niche would want to re-pin because it’s informative and users that are looking for this content will click on it because it adds value to them. When you create pins like that it is a win-win situation for you.
So how do you create such a pin? Let’s dive in:
Your Brand
The first element that you need to consider is your brand guidelines. This is the foundation of all the content you’ll be creating on Pinterest for your business. Consider the feel you’d like to communicate with your pins, is it minimalistic, girly, boxy, wild, messy? Once you got that settled alongside your fonts, colours and logo you are ready to start designing.
Two tools I like to use for pin design are Canva or Easil
Before we dive into each aspect of your pin I do want to clarify that there is no winning formula and everything needs to be A/B tested. Also, as I mentioned in other Pinterest Marketing posts you need to be making around 3-5 different looking pins per link in order to see which one your audience prefers. Never create one pin and hope for its success, it most likely won’t happen.
However, each pin does have specific key components you should be considering in every design to max it’s success.
The Anatomy
Here are 3 pins that are directed to the same link. Although they are pushing the same link they are very different from one another. But, they all have the same elements in common.
Sizing: When creating a pin consider the size, if you create your pin on Canva or Easil they already have templates with the appropriate sizing for Pinterest, just set them up for your templates.
1. Text & Font
Text is an important aspect of the pin’s anatomy. As you can see above, each pin has a different text and different fonts that help it stand out. When you’re writing your text think of what words will interest your ideal customer and what message you want to communicate.
Think about your text psychologically, what would grab someone’s attention?
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You are more likely to click on number 2 rather than 1, correct? Using words like need, must, top, how-to, and so on create a sense of FOMO and an illusion that what they are going to read will solve a problem for them or give them access to the best info possible on this specific topic. Words have a tremendous amount of power to our decision-making process, make sure you consider it when you’re writing out the Pin’s text. Remember that the title has to correspond to the link you’re sending the viewer, do not create misguiding pins.
The next step is to figure out how you want to size your text and what colour to use. Pinterest is a visual platform, thus it’s important to play around with the fonts, colours, and size. Changing those elements helps the viewer be more intrigued by the content rather than view a simple text on an image. The effort you put into a pin also gives away the vibe you’re trying to communicate. Positioning your text with bolded words, different color sentences and different sized words help get the viewers’ attention. You have to remember when they scroll through Pinterest there are hundreds of pins being viewed all the time, how are you going to catch someone’s eye?
2. Image
Just like the importance of the text, your image has a lot of value. When choosing an image make sure that it has the following:
- Originality
- Related to the topic or general content
- Good quality
The quality of the photo can make or break the value of your pin. When you use a stock image that has been used over and over in your niche, you’re most likely not going to get much attention. If you use an image that is original and that hasn’t been circulating you’re more likely to grab the viewer’s attention.
When you’re starting to design your pin make sure that your image is not overpowering the text. Meaning, when you place your image, either make it fade with the background like the above pins or take the image and scale it slightly to fit in with the ratio of the text, as you can see below one of my client’s pins.
Play around with your image and text until you find the balance you’re happy with.
3. Branded
This is an important step to remember. Once you’re done with the design, make sure you either put your logo on the pin or your website.
First, if you do this and start posting a lot on Pinterest, people will start recognizing your name and business.
The second reason is to prevent pin theft. There are a lot of people who don’t want to create their own content and if you don’t brand your pin they can “steal it” and use it for their own content.
Here is a a visual breakdown of what we discussed above
4. SEO
Now that you understand the visual aspect of a pin’s anatomy, let’s talk about how your pin can be found.
Whether you use a tool like Tailwind to upload your content or straight to Pinterest you need to consider how you’re going to keyword your pin so it comes on top.
A pin upload is made of:
- Title
- Description
- Link
- Image (the pin)
When you upload your pin, each part listed above needs to have some of the keywords you’d like to get scored by.
Let’s take the Tik Tok pins as an example:
For starters, you can see that the image itself has the main keywords: TikTok, marketing, strategy, and business. This is important because Pinterest is able to understand the info on the images and then categorize it into different places within its database. Therefore, if your content is clear then Pinterest can read it well.
Next, the title also has keywords that I am looking to get ranked with and in this case it is the same as the image. In general, it doesn’t have to be the word for word but it needs to have the main keywords.
The description is extremely important because this is the place you have an opportunity to put every keyword you want that will help you rank high on Pinterest search. Start the description by explaining what your post is about with your keywords, then you start plugging in your hashtags.
- Make sure to do your Keywords search before you plug in your hashtags, you want to make sure you’re using the best keywords for your topic.
You can learn how to figure out what keywords to use and how in this post
Lastly, make sure that your link also has 1-2 keywords that you want to rank high with.
5. Growth
The final step is to grow your pin. Once you can check off your visual and analytical aspects, it is time to grow your pin. Start by pushing your pin into your own boards and then go for the group boards.
I talk more in-depth about growth and group boards in this post, and you will find lots of images that will help guide you to success.
As you can see here, for the word TikTok Strategy my pin ranks in the second row. This is a good sign as this pin has only been live for about a month or so.
The beauty of Pinterest is that content grows overtime and if you have good content just be patient and keep adding pins to Pinterest and you will see its effects overtime.
The last thing I will leave you with are 5 FREE Pinterest templates designed by me, which you can use for your content and adjust accordingly.